A voter initiative to ban red light cameras in Murrieta could be in trouble after a judge tentatively ruled Wednesday, Aug. 1, that voters do not have power over traffic laws.

After hearing arguments, Riverside Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ottolia said he would reexamine the law and make his final ruling by 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 3.

Red light cameras backers took the tentative ruling as a win.

“I think we’re at the goal line,” Steve Flynn, the Murrieta resident who brought the suit, said outside the courtroom after the hearing.

An attorney for camera opponents said the judge’s ruling, so close to the election, would severely hamper his side’s ability to appeal. The ballot must be finalized by Aug. 15, to allow for enough time for ballot arguments to be written and for ballots to be printed, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters has said.

He argued the matter should wait until after the election, when camera proponents could challenge the initiative if it passes.

“If we lose, we don’t have any remedy,” said attorney Peter Lepiscopo. “The people’s power has been eviscerated.”

Murrieta resident Diana Serafin spent six months collecting signatures to get the anti-camera initiative on the November ballot.

In June, the lawsuit was filed in Riverside County Superior Court, seeking to stop the initiative. Its plaintiff is Steve Flynn, the city’s former Public/Traffic Safety Commission chairman.

Flynn says the cameras make Murrieta’s streets safer and he wants them to stay.

Murrieta now has red light cameras at three intersections. The City Council – minus Mayor Douglas McAllister – voted earlier this year to expand the cameras to two more intersections, but officials decided to wait to install those until after the election.

Flynn said he was contacted by lawyers who said they wanted to file a suit to stop the initiative, and they wanted him to take part. They never said who was paying their fees and Flynn never asked, he said.

Flynn again said today he doesn’t know if the camera company is involved in the suit. But, he said he hasn’t talked to anyone from the company in years, since his days on the commission.

A spokesman for the camera company, American Traffic Solutions, has declined to directly address whether his company is supporting the suit financially or otherwise. The spokesman, Charles Territo, will say only that his company is not an official party named in the suit.